Challenge Accepted: Knight to monofin in Swim Around Key West
June 28, 2018
In the 22-year history of the FKCC Swim Around Key West, no swimmer has attempted what Luke Knight will try this Saturday when the swim starts at 9 a.m. off Smathers Beach.
The former Key West High swimmer, who still holds three school records, will look to become the first person to swim around the island using a monofin. The monofin, shaped like a mermaid’s tail, will limit Knight from swimming in a normal fashion and, instead, he will have to rely mainly on his core strength.
“I’ll be using the FINIS monofin, it’s an all-rubber, extra large fin,” said Knight. “It’s just a one-tone fin, so you get great propulsion like a dolphin or a merman. What makes it really unique is that it’s more of an underwater tool. You’re not on top, so you don’t have to fight through the air and go back into the water.”
FINIS, a company based out California which makes swimming equipment, sponsored Knight and sent him one of its monofins and a front-centered snorkel to wear in Saturday’s race.
“I reached out to FINIS. I have a good friend who worked for FINIS and I happen to know the owner and the creator of the monofin,” said Knight. “I reached out and said ‘hey, I’m doing a 13-mile open water swim around Key West, going to be the first to do it. It would be great if you could sponsor me with a monofin’ and they instantly replied and sent one down.”
The idea to swim around the island while wearing a monofin originally came from race director and Key West High swim coach Lori Bosco.
“I thought it would be really cool to get mermaids or ‘monofining’ to go around the island because that’s something that’s really not incorporated into a lot of races,” said Bosco who coached Knight when he swam in high school. “Luke is going to be doing the first ‘monofin around the island’. I incorporated that just to bring more into our event because this town is all about mermaids, too, and being in the water.”
When Bosco first mentioned the idea to Knight, he simply told his coach, “Challenge accepted.”
“Instinctually I’m pretty competitive so I was like ‘challenge accepted,’” said Knight. “Just because she said it was the first time around, we spoke of it before. It’s not my first time swimming around the island. I’ve done it once before with no monofin, just solo swimming which was great,” continued Knight, who first swam the event in 2015. “This year, I am just trying to complete it with the monofin itself.”
As for training and preparing for this Swim Around Key West, Knight has spent the past four months training not only in the pool and ocean, but also on land.
“It was all core work,” said Knight. “I would just get in the pool and try 30, 40 minutes straight of just dolphin kick with the fin on itself. And I would also cross train with it. I was doing a lot of aerial yoga, core work, TRX suspension training, trying to get everything in shape,” said Knight, who is also sponsored by Kelly’s Aerial Arts and Fitness, located in Key West.
However, according to the former University of Nevada, Las Vegas swimmer, it will be the mental aspect and now the physical that will most likely be the toughest part about the swim. “I think the most difficult part is probably going to be the mental side,” he continued. “The last time I did it, it was a big mental thing. You get around it but now because. I’m not going to be using my arms as much and it’s going to be solid core.” When Knight first swam around Key West, he finished near the five-hour mark.
This time around, Knight says, his personal goal is to just reach the finish line using the monofin. “It’s just to finish. I’d love to try to finish around the same time as I did when I swam it (in 2015). Because I’m not going to be using my arms, it’s going to be all core. I’m shooting for around five hours and just to be the first person to do it. I’m confident, but again this is such a long endurance race. After a few miles, your mind starts to change about things, but I’ve done Iron Mans and I’ve done a lot of endurance things like that, so I don’t think it’s nothing I can’t handle.”
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